I'm an associate editor at Forbes, part of the team responsible for our signature issues: The Forbes 400, Global Billionaires and America's Richest Families. As a writer, I cover these wealthy business builders as well as other entrepreneurs. Before Forbes, I also reported on entrepreneurs for Inc. magazine, and attended Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

How Guns And Violence Cost Every American $564 In 2010

Each injury caused by a firearm sets in motion a prolonged series of events. There’s a car-ride to the emergency room…or the morgue. An officer investigates. A jury perhaps deliberates. A judge presides.

This chain adds up. To the sum of $564 per American. All told, firearm injuries cost the United States more than $174 billion in 2010, according to new data from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Most of that expense came from deaths; fatalities accounted for $153.3 billion.

The data is not produced regularly by PIRE, explained Ted Miller, the institute’s primary researcher. Miller was prompted to create it after last months’ massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., and the debate over firearm legislation that has followed. His data took him as far as estimating 2010′s costs, and he’s not sure if the costs have risen or not since: He acknowledges that while mass shootings seem to have increased, it’s unclear if firearm violence overall has risen too.

PIRE created the estimates based on 12 factors, from health care bills to what it would cost an employer to recruit a new employee after losing one to a firearm. Here’s how a fatality breaks down:

You can see that the lion’s share ($3.1 million) is quality-of-life costs. PIRE explains this is estimation of the pain, suffering and diminished livelihood of the injured people and their families. It does not account for anyone who may have merely witnessed the crime.

Now, a look at a fatality’s impact on the U.S. government:

Fatalities are far, far more expensive than an non-lethal injury. A firearm injury that included a trip to the hospital cost about $432,000 total and meant roughly $42,000 in government costs. By contrast, a murder would have racked up $5.1 million total and $582,000 in government expenses.

PIRE includes both homicides and suicides in its fatality estimates, a total of more than 30,000. In 2010, PIRE figures show there were 11,078 deaths caused by guns and 19,382 suicides. Suicides carried greater financial consequences.

America is unquestionably the most heavily armed nation in the world. Some projections show Americans own more than 300 million firearms. PIRE based its 2010 estimates on a slightly more conservative figure: 270 million. That means each gun represented $645 in costs for each American.

PIRE’s numbers are particularly striking when you consider how little is known about the figures behind America’s gun business. All told, it’s certainly a matter of billions of dollars. The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates it’s a $32 billion industry. Yet, we don’t even know how many guns are sold. Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest seller of munitions—Cabela’s another big retailer, Dick’s Sporting Goods a third. But those companies don’t report how many firearms they sell, and the loopholes in the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check allow that data to serve only as a broad gauge of sentiment. Meanwhile, America’s publicly traded gun companies, Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger,are small fry compared to European firearm manufacturers.

Keep the industry’s opacity in mind when reviewing PIRE’s figures. Still, the numbers are too burdensome on the mind, and on the wallet, to ignore and deserve a place in the on-going debate over what, if any, regulations should come.

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I wonder how much fatal car accidents cause. How about purposeful car killings? For example, I remember a case of a woman who ran her husband down with her Mercedes after catching him being unfaithful. Let’s see, the damage to the car + ambulance + police investigation + hospital costs (I’m sure insurance does not cover this type of thing) + adjudication of the case + prison costs. Wow, that must add up to a lot.

Perhaps we should do an analysis of auto accidents and murders to see what our banning policy should be with respect to cars?

Yet another straw man fallacy and attempt at a rational argument wasted.

Fact is, the argument you and the poster above you used is at best a completely idiotic argument. Cars and Knives…really? These actually have a useful purpose within society – they contribute to the economy in various ways. What do the guns or the citizens with guns contribute to? Gun sales? I understand they are a big business in the USA but the religious obsession with guns is not normal. There is simply no need for every person to be a firearm owner anymore – 18th and 19th centuries are long gone. 10,000 firearm deaths a year! 10,000! How can the thick pro-gun activists (specifically the gun hugging, gunpowder snorting NRA) not get that? The argument that some put forward that more guns will reduce the death rate is really the pinnacle of derangement. How many guns are needed to stop the killings? 300m not enough yet? Yes, I’m sure when every single person has 3 AR-15 rifles, a shotgun and 6 pistols each – it will reduce the death rate. Don’t keep dreaming – wake up and acknowledge the pit your country is in, the killings will just continue if nothing is done. Fact is, it has been proven continuously that it doesn’t work in your country; accept it and initiate a change instead of denying wrong and continuing stubbornly. A certain Einstein quote comes to mind.

“Cars and Knives…really? These actually have a useful purpose within society”

So you are saying that protecting your family has no purpose. It is OK for someone to die in a DUI accident? What a purpose did that car serve…

“wake up and acknowledge the pit your country is in, the killings will just continue if nothing is done.”

In this you are correct. We need to remove the Gun Free School zones so that our children can be as protected as the children of the senators and above who send their children to schools with armed protection. Wonder why loonies don’t go attack those schools? mmm

If you kindly re-read what I wrote you would see that I did not say that guns have absolutely no purpose just the simple fact that they do not play an active role in the US economy.

Cars are used for the transportation of people and goods all over the US. Without them, the US would suffer very deep economic lacerations.

Knives (those sharp things that we use to stab our food with), are used in millions of kitchens and restaurants. If we were to assume that all sharp tools were banned, it would be extremely hard to do many of the daily tasks that we do everyday.

Now, I ask, what practical purpose do the guns hold? Sure, I can somewhat understand ‘the protect your family argument’. But do you REALLY need a whole gun arsenal for that?

Looking at the population growth in urban areas, the problem can only get worse. We can only speculate what the best approach is; a complete ban, a ban on some types of weapons, increased background checks or simply keep it as is.

The knee-jerk reactions that come after major shootings won’t bring any good but I, as many others, wish that American people unite and decide what will actually work, for this is a very dividing issue in an already highly divided country. Somehow it is hard to see a conclusion any time soon but I remain hopeful for the sake of many innocent lives in the U.S of America.

Faulty perhaps but straw man it is not, cars have no need to go speeds beyond 55 mph should you decide that is their limit. Thus reducing accidents and fatalities. How about we just eliminate alcohol and make drugs illegal? That would work right, cause they don’t serve a purpose in society, that will make a difference. 10,000 fatalities, but half are self inflicted suicides, but would they use a difference means if guns were not there?

I’m missing what’s not working, say like the homicide rate which is higher by 2 twice that of say England in the EU but at the same rate the violent crime rate in England is 3 times higher than it is in the U.S. So apparently it’s not all roses on either side.

They actually do have a role in the economy. Because of guns, we were able to establish the country we now have. Economy may not be good now, but that is another story.

What is the purpose of guns? First, to protect our family. Second, to protect our country from tyranny (the main object of the 2nd). Yes, you are right in the fact that America needs to come together and figure out what works. So far, the lesson learned is that gun-control increases crime, so obviously that does not work.

Your conception of this is that then nobody can be trusted? Teachers have a very noble cause teaching the children of America. They could go get MBA’s and make 65k+ to start, yet they decide to get a degree in education and make a lot less. That to me is very un-selfish, and I applaud teachers. Having said this…. do you think that someone that sacrifices themselves in like this, does not deserve to be trusted with a weapon? Hell, if you cannot trust a teacher, let’s stick all people in a soundproof padded room so no one is hurt. Sorry, do not agreee.